‘We received an excellent reaction from the European market’

Suresh Pareek, MD, Ideal Cures, in an interaction with Express Pharma, talks about the uniqueness of INSTACOAT 4G, which was recently displayed at CPhI Worldwide

What are the major advantages of INSTACOAT 4G over other coating technologies?

INSTACOAT 4G stands today as one of those rare coating formulations that can maximise the potential of advanced continuous and batch coaters. Our team has also presented papers on this innovation at AAPS 2017, held in San Diego this year.

Some of the major features of INSTACOAT 4G include but are not limited to:

• High production output with approximately 60 per cent reduction in the coating process time compared to HPMC-based film coating systems
• Reduced energy consumption by virtue of reduced coating time results in reduced carbon emissions and carbon footprint making INSTACOAT 4G a best-in-class eco-friendly coating system
• There is an approximate reduction of 80 per cent in carbon emissions/ year with INSTACOAT 4G compared to traditional coating systems (11 per cent)
• *Batch size = 300 kg,
• ** 2 batches of 300 kg/day in a year (300 working days in a year)
• *** With respect to 11 per cent reconstitution levels
• # 0.5377(CO2 conversion factor used for calculations,

Ref: Carbon Trust, “Conversion factors: Energy and Carbon Conversions” 2011)

Assumptions: All the parameters are based on assumptions. These assumptions were used to quantify both the aforementioned energy consumption and the production capacity of a single coater. These numbers may obviously vary from equipment to equipment, from company to company and by geographic location.

Typical values are used and it is used as a representative analysis. Under the assumptions provided in this article, using INSTACOAT 4G may reduce energy consumption since it has shorter coating process time and may in turn reduce equivalent CO2 emissions by 79.2 per cent per year (compared to HPMC coating system).

• INSTACOAT 4G allows for high solids reconstitution level of 35 per cent at low viscosity values and increased spray rates
• INSTACOAT 4G trials have shown to maximise the potential of batch and continuous coating machines – A poster detailing the INSTACOAT 4G trial conducted on continuous coaters, was presented at AAPS 2016 as well as AAPS 2017
• AAPS 2017 Posters include:
  T5047: Coating Performance Evaluation of INSTACOAT 4G in a Bectochem Lodige Coater
  T5050: Evaluation of INSTACOAT 4G High Productivity Coating System using O’Hara Technologies Continuous Coater
  T5051: Coating Performance Study of INSTACOAT 4G using various spray guns and nozzles
  W1031: Evaluation of Coating Performance of INSTACOAT 4G in the Bectochem Perforated Pan
• Innate moisture barrier properties as the Polymer is PVA and the absence of plasticizers like PEG

There is no gun blockage, tablet sticking and picking, giving the end product a smooth finish with excellent uniformity

Cost saving

Cost-savings by virtue of high production output, reduced energy consumption, shorter process times, decreased labour cost and reduced machine-free time. More than 60 per cent reduction in process time is seen with respect to (w.r.t) traditional HPMC-based film coating systems. Reduced energy consumption (Kwhr) allows for approx. 70 per cent reduction in costs:

How was your experience at CPhI Worldwide? Did you launch any new products?

An avid participant of this prestigious exhibition, our booth was well received and saw continuous interaction. Some great opportunities presented themselves and we were eager to showcase our new innovation – InstaSpheres. We received an excellent reaction from the European market and are assured that InstaSpheres will be welcomed in India as well.

To give a little introduction, InstaSpheres is our take on seal coated spheres, available in MCC, Sucrose, Tartaric Acid and Silicon Dioxide at various commercial sizes.

These ready-to-drug layer next generations spheres are coated with either Hypromellose or Ethyl Cellulose. We do it for you so that you do not waste your time doing it.

Being available for immediate drug layering they eliminate initial coating time.

Reduction in overall processing time brings about massive time and cost saving. These spheres are robust with zero friability and negligible dust generation. Product consistency is maintained with uniform drug loading. There is tight particle size distribution with batch to batch consistency.

We are very excited about these ‘Next Generation’ spheres and look forward to introducing our customers to them at CPhI India.

Tell us more about the Sikkim facility. What was the reason behind choosing the state?

A state-of-the-art, +7500 sq mt facility with an average capacity of 75 MT/month, our newly commissioned Sikkim facility opened doors in March 2017. The main idea behind setting up manufacturing at a remote location was to provide ease of business for our customers. There are around 40 pharmaceutical manufacturing plants in North-East out of which 32 are in Sikkim. With our new facility, we are the first excipient provider in the vicinity. Being centrally located to our customers and close to the new airport, we are in a position to deliver our coating materials within the shortest time possible, sometimes even on the same day post manufacturing.

This will greatly reduce transportation time, cost and labour.

The second phase of our facility will be commissioned soon, allowing for the production of coloured coating material. Manufacturing of white coating material has already begun and will continue with exponential speed.

We have specifically recruited locals for this facility and have ensured that they have received at least six months of training at our Vasai or Jammu facility. We take pride in being preferred suppliers for excipients and this new facility is another floret added to our blossoming bouquet of services. We are assured that our clients will welcome this new venture and will continue to give us opportunities to serve them!